A Colorful Impact: The Psychological Impact of Colors (original) (raw)
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Emotional reactions to color hue, saturation, and brightness (Munsell color system and color chips) were investigated using the Pleasure-Aiousal-Dominance emotion model. Saturation (S) and brightness (B) evidenced strong and consistent effects on emotions. Regression equations for standardized variables were: Pleasure = .69B + .228, Arousal = -.31B + .60S, Dominance = -.76B + .328. Brightness effects were nearly the same for chromatic and achromatic colors. Blue, blue-green, green, red-purple, purple, and purple-blue were the most pleasant hues, whereas yellow and green-yellow were the least pleasant. Green-yellow, blue-green, and green were the most arousing, whereas purple-blue and yellow-red were the least arousing. Green-yellow induced greater dominance than red-purple.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COLOR AND EMOTION: A STUDY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
Ninety-eight college students were asked to indicate their emotional responses to five principle hues (i.e., red, yellow, green, blue, purple), five intermediate hues (i.e., yellow-red, green-yellow, blue-green, purple-blue, and red-purple), and three achromatic colors (white, gray, and black) and the reasons for their choices. The color stimuli were referenced from the Munsell Color System. The results revealed that the principle hues comprised the highest number of positive emotional responses, followed by the intermediate hues and the achromatic colors. The color green evoked mainly positive emotions such as relaxation and comfort because it reminded most of the respondents of nature. The color green-yellow had the lowest number of positive responses because it was associated with vomit and elicited the feelings of sickness and disgust. For the achromatic colors, white attained a large number of positive responses, followed by the colors black and gray. The reasons for the color-emotion associations are discussed and future research areas are suggested.
A Study of the Factors Affecting Colour Meaning and Emotional Response
Colour design research studies are concerned with identifying colour preferences and emotion elicited by colours, and a deep understanding of the aspects shaping these emotions will lead to better exploitation of colour design. This study highlights the aspects that contribute to human emotional response to colour. Hue, brightness and chroma are colour attributes used in different colour model identifying colours. Brightness and chroma in most studies affect the hue on colour emotion association. Colour context, texture and size are also discussed in terms of contribution to colour motion response. Other factors such as time span and culture impact the colour emotion link and aspects related to humans including personality, age, gender and preference to colour and/or emotion are discussed. The findings of this research will benefit marketers and designers to understand the effective usage of colour in design making in its aesthetical and functional aspects.
Investigating the Expressibility of Emotions with Colors
DergiPark (Istanbul University), 2022
Numerous studies have shown that colors have various psychological impacts, and these effects may be used in a variety of contexts. Colors can create change in our emotional states. Being under the influence of colors can cause sudden changes in mood. In particular, some colors show both positive and negative effects on the user. Associated with the help of this study, the emotions that colors create in people from design elements have been determined and it is aimed to ensure that colors can be used in accordance with the purpose of design. For this, 20 different colors and 26 positive and negative emotions were determined within the scope of the study in order to specify the emotions these colors create in people. In order to determine the effect of age and gender on preference in matching colors with emotions, a survey was conducted on a total of 320 people from different age groups and genders. As a result of the study, it has been revealed which colors or color groups can be used to create which feelings in the design. Thus, it has been shown how colors can be used in determining the space designs according to the effect of colors on people and in realizing the design in accordance with the purpose.
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Academia, 2025
Color plays a pivotal role in emotional experiences, influencing mood, perception, and behavior. This article reviews research from 2024 that investigates the relationship between color and emotion across various domains, including psychology, neuroscience, marketing, and design. Key findings include enhanced understanding of how warm and cool colors elicit distinct emotional responses, insights from neuroimaging studies that demonstrate the brain's processing of color stimuli, and applications in therapeutic settings that leverage color to regulate mood. Additionally, research into cultural variations and the influence of color in consumer behavior highlights the diverse ways in which color impacts emotion. The integration of color psychology into fields such as marketing, healthcare, and mental health holds significant promise for improving emotional well-being and decision-making.
The Effects of Color on the Moods of College Students
SAGE Open; DOI: 10.1177/2158244014525423, 2014
This research aims to discover the psychological effects of colors on individuals, using the students’ union complex in a university campus. This building was chosen due to its richness in color variances. The research method is survey, and questionnaires were drawn up and distributed to an even range of students, comprising both international and local students; undergraduate and graduate. Questionnaires have been collected and analyzed to find out the effects different colors had on students’ moods in different spaces of the students’ union complex. This research would contribute to understand more about colors and how they affect our feelings and therefore to make better decisions and increase the use of spaces when choosing colors for different spaces to suit the purpose for which they are designed.
Chapter 11. Unifying research on colour and emotion
Progress in Colour Studies, 2018
Popular opinions link colours and emotions. Yet, affective connotations to colours are heterogeneous (e.g. red represents anger and love) partly because they relate to different contexts. Despite insufficient evidence, colours are used in applied settings (health, marketing, etc.) for their supposed effects on cognitive and affective functioning. Summarizing the literature, we invite for systematic research to investigate when and how colours link with affective phenomena. We need to i) distinguish between situations in which colours are physically shown or linguistically treated, ii) specify types of affective processes (e.g. emotion, mood, preference), and iii) investigate cross-cultural differences. Having these needs in mind, we initiated an international online survey on semantic colour-emotion associations. We outline theoretical considerations and present the survey's design.
IJERT-A Link Between Colors and Emotions; A Study of Undergraduate Females
International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT), 2020
https://www.ijert.org/a-link-between-colors-and-emotions-a-study-of-undergraduate-females https://www.ijert.org/research/a-link-between-colors-and-emotions-a-study-of-undergraduate-females-IJERTV9IS090319.pdf This study examined the association of 3 primary colors blue, red and yellow (Munsell color system) and 3 neutral colors: black, white and grey to 4 emotions: happiness, fear, anger and sadness, in females 18-21 years old. The undergraduate females from various background, courses and age were required to associate the colors to the specific emotions and state why. It was predicted that the three primary colors would be associated with high energy emotions such as anger and happiness and the three neutral colors with low energy emotions such as sadness and fear in the sample. In the results, more than half of the subjects associated the primary colors with happiness, anger. Black, was associated majorly with happiness, red with fear, grey to sadness, White with fear. The color blue was poorly linked with anger and strongly with happiness like the color yellow across all the age groups.
Built-Environment Sri Lanka, 2012
Perception of colour stimuli is found to trigger corresponding emotional and behavioural responses within human beings. Literature establishes that red is stimulating while blue is pacifying. There seems to be divided theories on how these associations are being generated. It is argued widely that colour associated emotional responses are learnt and subjective while another theory is that it is a general innate response. A third theory discusses about a combination of both learnt and innate responses. The present paper reviews literature on the above three suppositions and enlightens on a study done seeking innate, general emotional reactions triggered by colour stimuli.